| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Leni: The Life And Work Of Leni Riefenstahl (Lie & Work) for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Bach's book might be called exemplary, except that that word is too cold for the excitement he generates . . . Powerful and enlightening (SUNDAY TIMES )
Meticulous (DAILY TELEGRAPH )
Not only powerful but also remarkably exciting (SUNDAY TIMES )
Bach systematically and thoroughly chronicles a life so full of contradictions and denials it almost makes you want to scream . . . A superb work (OBSERVER )
Meticulous (DAILY TELEGRAPH )
Not only powerful but also remarkably exciting (SUNDAY TIMES )
Bach systematically and thoroughly chronicles a life so full of contradictions and denials it almost makes you want to scream . . . A superb work (OBSERVER )
Literary Review
`An admirable achievement . . . [Bach's]will probably be the
definitive biography' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
definitive biography' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The author of this book has done an extremely good job of laying out the life of this most loved and most reviled of 20th Century film-makers. Despite the fact that he is or was a Jew, I found Steven Bach's treatment even-handed on the whole. Venom seeped out a little towards the end of the book, but on the whole this is a generally fair biography, showing that Leni Riefenstahl WAS indeed ganged up against by Jewish interests, especially in Hollywood, well before the Second World War and its unpleasantness (to use an understatement reminiscent perhaps of those Southern gentlemen who refer to the American Civil War as "the unpleasantness of the 1860's").
In the 1920's, the German studio Ufa was the biggest film-making effort outside Hollywood. Leni was an actress, by today's standards arguably not very good, but one has to remember that she was acting mostly in days of silent film. Bach does show by examples of Leni's behaviour after WW2 that she was quite a good actress in fact, when it suited her. As to her directing skills, eventually through her own company and not Ufa, one need only direct the curious to see Triumph of the Will (Triumph des Willens). Try to get a clear or remastered copy though. This film has probably been the most influential of its kind in 20th Century cinema and, as Bach shows in his book, has had influence which reaches through to feature films and to advertisements (even billboards or hoardings) today.
Her love for Hitler is not in doubt, though she was not a member of the NSDAP at the time of Triumph of the Will and the Nuremberg rally (NSDAP Parteitag) of 1934 which is its subject. Other major works were "Olympia" and "Germania".
After WW2, Leni was cold-shouldered in much of the world and turned to still photography, especially of the Nuba people of the Sudan. She lived to a very advanced age and her name is still honoured or at least, by the anti-Nazi "claque" of the mass media, remembered, put it that way! While it is true that the sort of people of watch "X Factor" or "Coronation Street" will not know her name, in a way that's the point. She was a self-standing artist, a type which emerged gradually in the 19th Century (Wagner being the obvious example), but which has not found a foothold in most cases in Hollywood, because of the predominance of what might be diplomatically called "the money men".
I should say that this book is certainly well worth reading so long as one keeps in mind the inevitable though quite muted "anti-Nazi" bias throughout.
In the 1920's, the German studio Ufa was the biggest film-making effort outside Hollywood. Leni was an actress, by today's standards arguably not very good, but one has to remember that she was acting mostly in days of silent film. Bach does show by examples of Leni's behaviour after WW2 that she was quite a good actress in fact, when it suited her. As to her directing skills, eventually through her own company and not Ufa, one need only direct the curious to see Triumph of the Will (Triumph des Willens). Try to get a clear or remastered copy though. This film has probably been the most influential of its kind in 20th Century cinema and, as Bach shows in his book, has had influence which reaches through to feature films and to advertisements (even billboards or hoardings) today.
Her love for Hitler is not in doubt, though she was not a member of the NSDAP at the time of Triumph of the Will and the Nuremberg rally (NSDAP Parteitag) of 1934 which is its subject. Other major works were "Olympia" and "Germania".
After WW2, Leni was cold-shouldered in much of the world and turned to still photography, especially of the Nuba people of the Sudan. She lived to a very advanced age and her name is still honoured or at least, by the anti-Nazi "claque" of the mass media, remembered, put it that way! While it is true that the sort of people of watch "X Factor" or "Coronation Street" will not know her name, in a way that's the point. She was a self-standing artist, a type which emerged gradually in the 19th Century (Wagner being the obvious example), but which has not found a foothold in most cases in Hollywood, because of the predominance of what might be diplomatically called "the money men".
I should say that this book is certainly well worth reading so long as one keeps in mind the inevitable though quite muted "anti-Nazi" bias throughout.
14 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Steve Bach has done a remarkable job of painting a complex, life-like and believable portrait of Leni Riefenstahl, the (in)famous Nazi-era film director. He does so both by pointing out her many shortcomings, (not the least of which is a rapacious sucking-up to Hitler and his cronies), and also by admiring her ground-breaking cinematic genius. This is an unusual feat for a critic who is politically liberal --a rare case of someone able to separate his reflexive distaste for the many moral and ideological compromises she made to fuel her rise from being a plumber's daughter, to becoming one of the most creative film directors of the 20th Century.
Riefenstahl lived two separate lives: her life as a second-rate actress which segued into becoming a sensational film director and naturalist photographer; and her life of spending the last 60 years of her career defending her casting-couch activities of the first 20. Active to the very end, she died in 2003, age 101--a camera still in her hand.
How then to judge Ms Riefenstahl; how then to judge the book? As we never seem to learn, great talent does not necessarily come from great people. Why are we so regularly surprised to learn that geniuses are often terribly flawed in other aspects of their character. (This has made a "neutral" portrayal of Hitler impossible to depict. No one has been able to separate the evil of the man from his political genius--a genius that turned a prostate nation into a world power almost overnight.) Amazon.com is so repelled by Riefenstahl that they resolutely refuse to post more than two luke-warm reviews, in spite of attempts by many readers to add to the list.
As one of Hitler's favorite pets, Riefenstahl eagerly sought to bathe in the reflected glory of the Fuhrer's power, while she combined that enabling light with her own illumination to create extraordinary cinematic works of art and propaganda. Of course her close association with Hitler made her a natural target of derision for that other propaganda machine--the entire Hollywood community. Once those sights were set, nothing she ever did could be admitted as worthy of artistic praise. (Most of the criticism of her ground-breaking film of the 1936 Berlin Olympics excoriates her for not knowing about Hitler's anti-Jewish activities of a much later date.)
Steven Bach has admirably overcome that distinction, and his depiction of Riefenstahl is masterful. He does her full justice--her guile and dissimilitude, her back-stabbing ambition, her reckless spunk and genius. What one is to make of this uneasy amalgam is something each of us will have to decide for himself.
Riefenstahl lived two separate lives: her life as a second-rate actress which segued into becoming a sensational film director and naturalist photographer; and her life of spending the last 60 years of her career defending her casting-couch activities of the first 20. Active to the very end, she died in 2003, age 101--a camera still in her hand.
How then to judge Ms Riefenstahl; how then to judge the book? As we never seem to learn, great talent does not necessarily come from great people. Why are we so regularly surprised to learn that geniuses are often terribly flawed in other aspects of their character. (This has made a "neutral" portrayal of Hitler impossible to depict. No one has been able to separate the evil of the man from his political genius--a genius that turned a prostate nation into a world power almost overnight.) Amazon.com is so repelled by Riefenstahl that they resolutely refuse to post more than two luke-warm reviews, in spite of attempts by many readers to add to the list.
As one of Hitler's favorite pets, Riefenstahl eagerly sought to bathe in the reflected glory of the Fuhrer's power, while she combined that enabling light with her own illumination to create extraordinary cinematic works of art and propaganda. Of course her close association with Hitler made her a natural target of derision for that other propaganda machine--the entire Hollywood community. Once those sights were set, nothing she ever did could be admitted as worthy of artistic praise. (Most of the criticism of her ground-breaking film of the 1936 Berlin Olympics excoriates her for not knowing about Hitler's anti-Jewish activities of a much later date.)
Steven Bach has admirably overcome that distinction, and his depiction of Riefenstahl is masterful. He does her full justice--her guile and dissimilitude, her back-stabbing ambition, her reckless spunk and genius. What one is to make of this uneasy amalgam is something each of us will have to decide for himself.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Despite the fact that Leni Riefenstahl is such an interesting character Bach manages to make this an unsatisfying work. He is a jew and as such is incapable of true objectivity regarding any individual who was part of, or associated with, National Socialism. He does provide a fair overview of Leni's life and experiences but there is an almost non-stop sniping, sometimes subtle and sometimes open and bitter, against her. The real purpose of his book, I think, was to prove that Leni Riefenstahl was really an unrepentant nazi who failed to abase herself enough for the satisfaction of the jews and who escaped punishment for creating such an effective work of cinematography and propaganda for the man and system that the world loves to hate the most. Triumph of the Will and Olympia were amazing ground-breaking works of creativity that can still stir viewers today and which employed technical methods that were trailbreaking for the period. Of course Leni was supportive of National Socialism and Hitler; the vast majority of Germans and many foreigners were also at the time. After the catastrophe of 1945 and the real physical danger which supporters of the defeated nazis faced it was to be expected that any prudent German would try to distance themselves from the defeated system if they wanted any chance of a normal life. Bach and his cousins were never going to have any of that from Leni though. She was guilty and must be seen to be so. Her talent is admitted but her guilt remains and so she must go down in history as the 'notorious' Leni Riefenstahl who glorified the 'monster' Hitler and his diabolical National Socialism. I cannot recommend this book very highly because of its persistent bias.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
The archest of hypocrites...
Leni Riefenstahl idolised the Fuhrer. There was no threat of death hanging over her: she positively viewed the rise of Nazism and Hitler as an opportunity in the same way as the... Read more
Published on 1 May 2007 by Spinning Jenny
Portrait of ambition
Leni provides us with a snapshot of the artist as ambitious monster--while Riefenstahl herself didn't directly kill any Jews she participated in the parade of deception creating a... Read more
Published on 1 May 2007 by WTDK
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
